Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 27, 2025
The faces of John Grange and Mary seemed to rise before him reproachfully, and, for the first time in his life, he stood before the old couple in the cottage a humbled man, hardly conscious of what was being said. "Then he took nothing away with him, Hannah?" he said at last. "No, sir, nothing that I can make out." "Nowt!" said old Tummus.
"Aye, lass, I don't grumble much at he, but we'm do grow precious owd." "And a great blessing too, Tummus," cried his wife. "You don't hear Mr Ellis complain about getting old." "Nay, but then he's got a pretty bairn, bless her! as sweet and good a lass as ever stepped; and I says that to Master Ellis's face, same as I've often said it behind his back. Bless her! There!"
"Keerful?" cried old Tummus contemptuously: "he did it o' purpose. I know: out o' spite." "Tummus, you're driving us in a coach and four into the workhouse," cried his wife passionately. "Good job too. I don't keer. I say Dan Barnett did it out o' spite, and I'll go straight to the missus and tell her." "No," said John Grange sternly. "Not a word. What you say is impossible.
"But it looks so bad, cutting like that; and how do we know what you used that knife for last." "Well, Muster John Grange can't see, can he?" "No, no, I cannot see, man," said Grange sadly. "Go on in your own way as if I were not here." "Burr-urr!" growled old Tummus again. "Why, what is the matter with the man?" cried his wife. "Have you not meat enough?" "Aye, it's right enow.
At seven o'clock next morning John Grange felt better when he stood with Daniel Barnett, old Tummus, and Mary Ellis's father at the foot of the great cedar facing the house, a tree sadly shorn of its beauty by a sudden squall that had swept down the valley, and snapped off the top, where an ugly stump now stood out forty feet from the lawn.
So that, knowing well his wife's weakness, old Tummus would pick up a fallen pear when he saw it under the tree in September, show it to old Dunton, who would nod his head, and the destination of that pear would be Tummus's pocket.
"There yo're wrong, squoire fo' unluckily they aw did," replied Nance, with a scarcely-suppressed laugh. "Roger Nowell gied him one hundred; Tummus Whitaker of Holme, another; Ruchot Parker o' Browsholme, another. An more i' th' same way." "And the rascal pocketed it all, and never brought me back one farthing," cried Nicholas, in a transport of rage.
The ladder had been raised, and got into position, but it was too short by ten feet, and there was an awkward climb before the man who went up could use the saw or attach the rope to keep the sawn-off stump from falling with a crash. "Well," said Ellis, "what are we waiting for?" Old Tummus chuckled.
"Wheer is he then, sir?" said old Tummus firmly. "Gone away for a bit perhaps to London." "Nay, not he," said old Tummus, shaking his head, "I'm sewer o' that." "Why, how do you know?" "Would a smart young man like John Grange was ha' gone up to London without takking a clean shirt wi' him?" "What!" "Didn't take no clean shirt nor stoggins nor nowt." "Are you sure of that?" said the bailiff.
"Well, then, he's made away wi' himself," cried old Tummus, bringing his hand down upon the table with a heavy bang. The bailiff, who had not removed his hat before now, took it off, showing a heavy dew upon his forehead, which he wiped away as he looked uneasily from one to the other. "What what makes you say that, Tummus?" murmured Ellis, who did not seem to be himself at all.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking